Remembering Rod--He Was a Friend of Mine

                                                         Rod Davis and my wife, Gayle in Five Points

Bob Dylan sings plaintively: “

He was a friend of mine 

He was a friend of mine

Every time I think about him now

Lord I just can’t keep from crying

Cause he was a friend of mine.”

Rod Davis, who left us much too soon was a friend of a whole lot of us. And though there is enormous sadness in many of our hearts, even in our sorrow, 

there wells up a gratitude because he touched us, he made us feel better about ourselves and loved so, so much.

My friendship with Rod dates all the way back to 1955. We were in college at what was Howard College in Birmingham. I remember sitting in his bedroom in Horton, Alabama while he told me about T.S. Eliot whom I did not know He read passages from “Choruses from the Rock.” 

The desert is not remote in southern tropics,

The desert is not only around the corner,

The desert is in a tube-train next to you,

The desert is in the heart of your brother.”

So he opened a door to a world of books that I did not know. But there was so much more. Even from those early green days I found him kind, quiet, never making a splash—but there, making a difference in all sorts of ways. 

He was quite a spiffy dresser back there. And he had this grey wool suit with time aqua stripes running through it. And with it he wore this aqua and grey tie. And I kept talking about that tie and he kept saying, “There is nothing wrong with this tie.” But I kept talking about that tie. Years later when I was about to get married, he sent me this same tie and said he thought it would dignity to the occasion. 

Years later when he got married I sent the same tie back to him with some kind of a crazy message. I know you still would like to wear this tie at your wedding. No response.

But in the beginning of my first church—way down on Highway Alternate 54 in Kentucky—this are tie came in the mail. Saying he thought it might just add some class as I began my work. And he would send me books back then like Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship with the inscription:”To Roger who knows the truth of this title.” He sent me a book by an author I did not know, The Magnificent Defeat by Frederick Buechner. Rod, at Yale Divinity School opened the door back then to this friend preaching in Philpot,  Kentucky. I think I have read about everything Mr. Buechner wrote, shaping my life in many ways. This came from Rod Davis.

In the sixties, he and his wife spent a night with us in Virginia on their way to teach at a black college, Miles College in Birmingham. Later he went on to teach at John Jay College in New York and in his generosity invited me and some friends to stay in his apartment. Later he invited our family to spend a week there while he was gone. I am not sure he taught at John Jay College. He was a member of the Riverside Church and served on the Search Committee after Bill Coffin resigned from the church. 

Much, much later Dr. Bill Hull, the Chancellor at Howard-Samford, my alma mater  called me and said, “We’re considering Rod Davis for Dean of the College here—what do you think.” I told him if we could get Rod to come he would do wonderful things for the students and the college. So he came back home to Birmingham and students said that he was a legend in his own time. He brought such a rich legacy to the school, during his tenure.  

I was considering  taking a church in Birmingham and he told me, “If you come I will join your church.” And he did. And he helped us immensely.

While he was still at Samford he established the Davis Lectures And through the years he brought great people to the campus. Taylor Branch, Eugene Robinson, Walter Isaacson, Marilynne Robinson and so many others.

He retired from Samford and I was asked to speak at his retirement dinner. And I told the story about a knitted aqua and gray tie that we kept exchanging. 

After we left the church Rod stayed in Birmingham surrounded by many friends and colleagues. He was great asset to the larger Birmingham community. For years he has raised his voice for social justice, and so many issues that touched Birmingham and Alabama and beyond.

About three years ago he started having some serious problems and slowly drifted away. Until a year or so we still talked on the telephone. 

His Memorial Service will be held at the church he loved, The Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham on Saturday, May 13th.

When you lose someone who has been a strong friend the grief is palpable and hard. Yet I remember so very much that friendship meant to me. I hope these words have helped to try to capture the life of a very great man. Many, many others could tell their own Rod stories.

                               Rod Davis, Roger Lovette, Lizette Van Gelder (our teacher), Edward Gibbons

Benediction

“Into paradise may the angels lead dear Rod; at his

coming may the martyrs take him up into eternal rest, 

and may the chorus of angels lead him to that 

holy city, and the place of perpetual light.”

—The Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com